SUMMARY
Background: Textile and dye industries pose a serious threat to the environment. Conventional methods used for
dye treatment are generally not always effective and environmentally friendly. This drove attention of scores of
researchers to investigate alternative methods for the biodegradation of dyes using fungal strains. In this work,
white-rot fungus (Panus tigrinus) was used as a biosorbent for the decolorization of Reactive Blue 19. The
process parameters that were varied were initial concentration (50–150 mg/L), contact time (30–90 min), and
pH (2–6). In addition, to gain important data for the evaluation of a sorption process, the equilibrium and
kinetics of the process were determined.
Results: White-rot fungus showed great potential in decolorizing Azo dyes. The strain showed the maximum
decolorization of 83.18% at pH 2, a contact time of 90 min, and an initial concentration of 50 mg/L. The
Langmuir isotherm described the uptake of the Reactive Blue 19 dye better than the Freundlich isotherm.
Analysis of the kinetic data showed that the dye uptake process followed the pseudo second-order rate
expression.
Conclusion: The biosorption process provided vital information on the process parameters required to obtain the
optimum level of dye removal. The isotherm study indicated the homogeneous distribution of active sites on the
biomass surface, and the kinetic study suggested that chemisorption is the rate-limiting step that controlled the
biosorption process. According to the obtained results, P. tigrinus biomass can be used effectively to decolorize
textile dyes and tackle the pollution problems in the environment.